God acts in power at the Red Sea

At the Red Sea God acts in power according to the purposes of His
love; consequently the enemy, who was closely pursuing His people, is
destroyed without resource. This is what will happen to the people at
the last day, already in reality -- to the eye of God -- sheltered
through the blood.

The Red Sea as a type

As a moral type, the Red Sea is evidently the death and resurrection
of Jesus, so far as the real effecting of the work goes in its own
efficacy, as deliverance by redemption, and of His people as seen in
Him; God acting in it, to bring them, through death, out of sin and
the flesh, giving absolute deliverance from them by [1] death, into
which Christ had gone, and consequently from all the power of the
enemy. As to our standing and acceptance we are brought to God: our
actual place is thus in the world, become the wilderness on our way to
glory. We are made partakers of it already through faith. Sheltered
from the judgment of God by the blood, we are delivered, by His power
which acts for us, from the power of Satan, the prince of this
world. The blood keeping us from the judgment of God was the
beginning. The power which has made us alive in Christ, who has gone
down into death for us, has made us free from the whole power of Satan
who followed us, and, as to conscience, from all his attacks and
accusations. We have done with the flesh as our standing, and Satan's
power, and, brought to God, are in the world with Him. The world, who
will follow that way [2] , is swallowed up in it.

The Red Sea the end of events, but the beginning of the Christian path

Considered as the historical type of God's ways towards Israel, the
Red Sea terminates the sequel of events; and so for us. We are brought
to God. Thus the forgiven thief could go straight to Paradise. As a
moral type, it is the beginning of the christian path, properly so
called; that is to say, the accomplishment of the redemption [3] by
which the soul begins its christian course, but is viewed as in the
world, and the world become the wilderness of its pilgrimage; we are
not in the flesh.

[1] Jordan adds our death with Christ, and, as to our state
subjectively, our resurrection with Him -- analogous to the forty
days He passed on earth. To this the teaching of Colossians
answers. Hence heaven is in hope. Romans 3: 20 to 5: 11 gives Christ's
death for sins, and resurrection for our justification; thence to the
end of chapter 8, death to sin. Sin in the flesh is not forgiven, but
condemned (Rom. 8: 3); but we as having died are not in the flesh at
all, we are alive unto God through, or rather in, Jesus Christ. This
takes us no farther than the wilderness, though passing through it as
alive to God in Christ. In Romans we are not risen with Christ. That
involves, as a consequence, our being identified with Him where He is;
and so, by the Holy Ghost when we are sealed, union. In Colossians we
are risen with Him, but not in heavenly places. Colossians treats of
life, with a hope laid up for us in heavenly places; not at all of the
Holy Ghost. In Ephesians 2 we are risen with Him and sitting in
heavenly places in Him, and then begins the conflict with spiritual
wickedness in heavenly places, and testimony according to what is
heavenly; so far this is Jordan and Canaan, and here the sealing and
gift of the Holy Ghost is fully spoken of, and our relationship with
the Father and with Christ, as sons, and as body and bride. Only
Ephesians begins with our being dead in sins, so that it is a new
creation; it is not death to sin. The blood-shedding, however, in one
respect, has a more glorious character. God is glorified in it, though
by crossing Jordan we are experimentally placed higher. That too is
the fruit of the blood-shedding, in which there is not only the
bearing of sins to meet our responsibility, but a glorifying of God,
so as to bring us withal into God's glory with Him, which is beyond
all questions of responsibility. [2] This is a solemn
warning; for the worldlings, who call themselves Christians, do take
the ground of judgment to come, and the need of righteousness, but not
according to God. The Christian goes through it in Christ, knowing
himself otherwise lost and hopeless; the worldling in his own
strength, and is swallowed up. Israel saw the Red Sea in its strength,
and thought escape was hopeless: so an awakened conscience, death and
judgment. But Christ has died and borne judgment for us, and we are
secured and delivered by what we dreaded in itself. The worldling,
seeing this, adopts the truth in his own strength, as if there were no
danger, and is lost in his false confidence.

[3] In itself, it is Christ's death and resurrection. But that is not
only meeting the holiness of God's nature, which is the
blood-shedding, but entering into the whole power of evil that was
against us and making it null. Hence, though it be not our realising
death and resurrection so as to be in heavenly places, we are owned as
having died in Him, and He our life, so that we have left our old
standing altogether. In Colossians, we are risen with Him; in
Ephesians, also sitting in Him in heavenly places. Colossians is the
risen man still on earth, the subjective state, what refers to heaven
but is not there, as Christ Himself for forty days -- Jordan
crossed, but not Canaan taken possession of.